Glass Art Experience - Experience Art Glass Leadlite Courses

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One full day course at our studio. Students are taught the basics in building a window using the ‘lead came method’. Lead-came is the arts and crafts of cutting coloured glass and joining the pieces into picturesque designs.

In lead-came glasswork a colourful design is created by joining pieces of stained glass panes that have been specially cut for the work. In the lead-came method the pieces of glass are embedded into the channels of the came, and then the joints between the came strips are soldered together.

The lead-came has channels into which the glass pieces are inserted. There are two types of lead-came: for the circumference of the design, came with a U-shaped cross-section may be used, as it takes glass only on one of its sides.

Schematic cross-section drawing of two glass pieces embedded in three lead came pieces: 1 - U-shaped came; 2 - H-shaped came; 3 - glass

For the middle of the design, came with an H-shaped cross-section is used, taking glass on both its sides. The middle part of the H is called the heart, which connect to the "ears" of the lead. The two surfaces on each end of the H are called the "face". Emphasis of selected joint lines can be obtained by using wider came for these joints.

The first step is to create a design on paper. You can create your own designs, or use the large selection of patterns available. You will then learn cut and grind the glass after which you will assemble you project.

You will be taught how to solder the lead-came at the joints between strips with solder. This is in contrast to the copper-foil method, where the whole length of the copper strip is soldered.

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